Bikers

The days of Minnesota’s only bicycle racing velodrome may be numbered. With a mounting list of necessary repairs at the National Sports Center’s velodrome in Blaine, board members are weighing whether to put in hundreds of thousands of dollars or close it up.

A group of bicyclists in Minneapolis asked the city council Tuesday to make some changes to better separate bikes and cars. The council will vote on Mayor Betsy Hodges’ budget proposal Dec. 10, which asks for $750,000 to build protected bike lanes across the city.

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the number of Minnesota commuters biking to work is on the incline. The amount of bikers has more than doubled from 1.9 percent in 2000 to 4.1 percent in 2012.

On the cold and snowy landscape of a wintry Saturday afternoon, bicyclists of all ages came to pay their respects. Marcus Nalls, 26, was one of them: a commuter on two wheels who used his bike to get around. Stefan Turner, a bicycle mechanic, had just worked on Nalls’ bike, installing his rack and fenders. “Marcus was one of the … coolest guys we’ve had in our shop in a long time,” Turner said.

On Wednesday, a bicyclist narrowly avoided a Molotov cocktail that was tossed from the bridge over the Midtown Greenway. Though the bicyclist was not injured, the incident has prompted a meeting to improve safety measures along the bike path.

On Wednesday morning, hundreds of motorcyclists from across the state converged at the Minnesota State Capitol. The group American Bikers for Awareness, Training, and Education wants lawmakers to give serious thought to motorcycle safety.